Defending My Family
by Mist.Filled.Eyes
Summary: Sasuke and Hinata went into a bank, they did not come back out. It is up to Gaara and the remainder of the team to get them out. If they can calm the armed sociopath holding them hostage first.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**Hey, so this is a one-shot for right now. I may or not add some chapters. I'm just going to start using this particular story to keep me going. It will not likely ever really progress quickly. I wanted to post this even thought my computer decided it didn't like and refused to spell check. If there is spelling errors, I'm sorry, but English is my first language and I still suck at it.

It isn't quite a crossover. I've recently become an addict to two shows. Criminal Minds, and Supernatural. This is sort of my imagination running wild with Criminal Minds and Naruto blended. I'm not using any of the shows characters, but I am applying their themes to an AU Naruto kind of thing.

Also I will be trying out my first ever OC! She's just going to be starting out in a one-shot with Gaara and Sasuke - our favorite boys will still be gay of course - I just want to see if I have the ability to expand and create. Not just write with Masashi's characters.

If it turned out badly, my apologies, but if it isn't all that bad please enjoy.

Without further ado,

* * *

Gaara stretched his weary shoulders then pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. Anything to drown out the images burning in his skull. Naruto's angry screams at him for 'not doing anything!' refused to leave his exhausted and pounding mind. Briefly his thoughts drifted to the bottle of pain killers in his drawer before opting that he needed a clear and drug-free head. Those damn things would have to go, they were getting far too tempting.

Sasuke and Hinata had gone into that bank, and both Gaara and Naruto's breath had halted for a split-second as they moved to follow behind. It was a bad omen both men had foolishly chosen to ignore. Sasuke had led the team in which is where things gone screwy, Gaara should have been first inside, should have been the one taken. Sasuke and Hinata were first, then both turned and slammed the doors in the rest of the teams faces mouthing I'm sorry.

For a minute, no one understood, then a bullet thumped audibly into flesh and Sasuke had gasped. Gaara had yelled his name and tried to get into the bank, all the while SWAT and Naruto were jerking him back. That was the only time Gaara had ever visibly panicked. He'd been fighting against his own team to get to his friends. Fighting his own team to run into a bank with a insane gunman inside.

Sasuke was Hinata's partner, almost solely based on the reasoning that the Uchiha thought of the girl as his sister and refused to allow anything to cause harm to the dainty Hyuuga. Naruto trusted Sasuke implicitely with the role of his girlfriend's guardian. Gaara only held his concern that his closest friend would harm himself in the line of protecting the shy agent.

The FBI's BAU were the best in the business. Gaaara ran the team as leader and did it well. Shikamaru Nara was the next highest on the list as the second most senior agent, then Naruto, Sasuke, TenTen and Hinata was the rookie. Gaara had partnered people accordingly. Shika was lazy but brilliant, Tenten was very much a do-something person so they were together because Shika made her stop and think, she made him get up and go. He and Naruto were partners because of how well they balanced each other. Gaara was calm, calculating and rougher. Naruto could talk down anyone with a quickly spoken sentance or two. His compassion was something Gaara still didn't quite have right.

Sasuke and Hinata. How do you explain that one. Sasuke was a ying-yang symbol on his own, a brilliant profiling mind complimented a well-trained body. Hinata was the same way. Her movements were less noticeable and in that came her power. By the time you did notice her your gun was on the ground in pieces, disarmed. Her warm, soothing manner often subdued the crazy people chasing her. The duo understood each other on a level no other person could reach. Sasuke was closer to Gaara then a brother ever could be, Hinata was in love with Naruto; probably the rest of the reason the four of them were split as they were. Naruto and Hinata's relationship would cloud both their judgement.

"Give me a minute, I need a minute!" Gaara yelled loudly, sending 3 agents scurrying out his office. Today was not the day for people to be pestering him about such trivial things like paperwork. It'd get done when it got done. Paperwork could wait.

Gaara rubbed his azure eyes again then stood, fixed his suit coat and exited his office. Ignoring the hushed murmurs of question. No one had ever seen the redhead so frazzled as when he'd been brought in. Naruto had been supporting him like he hurt his leg and pulling him into his office as fast as he could. Very quietly he'd been murmuring about how Gaara would have to come up with something to get the two trapped agents out of there.

Everyone was positively brimming with curiosity about what the famous SSA Gaara Sabaku was going to do next. Neji ran to his side, Neji worked as SWAT and was assisting on this situation, plus Naruto had called to tell him that his girlfriend had pulled a knife on him if he didn't get the Hyuuga over there now. TenTen was a ferocious woman, it was no wonder she was dating the powerhouse known as Neji Hyuuga.

He waved the agent into the press room following silently behind. Once the door opened for them the shouted questions began.

"Gaara! What's the situation with the hostage situation look like?"

"Agent Sabaku, rumor has it your men are inside already why haven't you gotten the hostages out yet?"

Gaara waved them silent then began speaking in a neutral tone, "Today at 2:35pm, the Behavioural Analysis Unit moved to siege a name you all know very well. Tymura Gtomi took hostage 15 people. Tymura is well known for his killing spree, made furthermore famous by committing this spree under the guise of robbing banks where someone always played hero. My people exposed the hoax and when he is caught he will be executed in retribution for the 12 lives he's taken. I have no comment regarding the rumor that my agents are inside and will update as the situation progress. No questions right now." He turned and began his casual stroll from the room, unwilling to listen to the shouts about pictures of someone being shot. Gaara definitely didn't listen to that part, he didn't want to talk or even think about Sasuke being shot.

"Rumor has it Sasuke Uchiha was inside, and that he's injured." A man spoke calmly over the din and Gaara turned and stared blankly.

"Rumor? Perhaps it should be confirmed before you bring it to my attention. Someone grab him." He waved a hand and Neji quickly snatched up the big mouth reporter. Once they were inside his office the reporter turned and with arrogance in his voice addressed Gaara.

"Look, I know this drill, The big bad boss of the FBI puts on a grand production-"

"Arrest him." Gaara wasn't really intending on putting this idiot in jail but that arrogance meant Gaara would get nothing easily.

"What?" The man practically squeaked. Gaara glanced coolly over his shoulder and looked the man over. Scraggly brown hair, big glasses, thin and wiry. He looked kinda girlie. Great, if Gaara threw him in either the men's or the women's holding cells this stick figure would never be the same. Damn.

"I consider these robberies and murders to be a thorn in my side I don't feel like being hassled about. I'll make a deal though..." Gaara trailed off suggestively and sat down behind his desk and began calmly signing off on different reports and requests.

The man fidgeted for a second and Gaara lifted a hand to snap for Neji and the man protested, "Wait! What deal?"

"Your source and a view on everything you know. In return I may be inclined to keep your ass out of jail and maybe even give you a first look at the situation as we go along." Gaara shrugged and leaned back. The more relaxed and disinterested he seemed the edgier this guy got. So Gaara was the picture of calm perfection.

"Deal." The man stuck his hand across the desk and Gaara shook it," So my source was a hostage _inside _the bank. I know the bank manager well and her like 9 year old kid is hiding in the safe. He has a cell and my number, he recognized Sasuke's face from the news and texted me. We're keeping in contact. He takes pictures and sends them out to me, he wanted me to go to the FBI and get help. Here I am."

The man, Rotor Hallowfield from the press tag on his jacket, offered his cell phone and Gaara flipped through the pictures quickly. Okay, confirmed 15 hostages. Wait, 16. The kid himself was hiding in the safe, smart move. Obviously he didn't intend on moving.

_Ouch._

Gaara paused at a picture. Sasuke was laying on a table half-attempting to struggle, his shirt torn open and three women surrounding him. Most of whom were wearing scrubs, the hospital wasn't too far away those nurses were probably just cashing their checks. How unfortunate for them. Fortunate for Sasuke though, seeing as from the picture, that bullet went into his side and didn't come out.

Sasuke's mouth was open and Gaara could tell it was cuss on his lips. He studied the picture a bit closer and realized the reason Sasuke was on his side wasn't because he was trying to get away, but because a nurse had her fingers into the bullet wound. Gaara just barely managed to keep his face calm and composed, freaking out would give this little reporter the upper hand.

"Sir! They're calling." Neji ran in and motioned to the phone," Line 3."

Gaara took a breath to clear his head and counted the rings. 1...2....3...then he picked up. This guy had to realize Gaara was in control or he'd keep shooting people.

"Sabaku."

"SSA Sabaku, may I call you Gaara?" Tymura's voice was cold and for a single second Gaara really wanted to hang up and get a strong drink. He'd presented the profile, he knew this man backwards and forewards. Controlling and organized. He has a lot of rage, and he displays it by showing a serious overkill. Often putting 18 bullets into one person. White male, late 30's-early 40's. He has a low opinion of society and the people in it. He is a paranoid personality who doesn't trust enough to allow himself to have a partner.

"As long as I can call you Tymura." Be nice Gaara, mentally the agent chided himself for sounding so brisk. That could piss him off and as much as Gaara had to carefully move himself into a position of power and dominance, ticking Tymura off was not the way to do it.

"Deal. I have someone who wants to talk you Gaara, he's simply _dying _to speak. Say hi to Gaara." Gaara could hear the phone being shuffled then heavy, labored breathing for a second before a deep breath and a quick string of facts.

"15 hostages, three guns: semi-auto, buckshot and--" Sasuke barked into the phone before a crack and a few screams cut him off. Gaara, having been listening intently, reasoned that Tymura had struck Sasuke and people freaked. Gaara frowned, closing his eyes. Leave it to Sasuke to shoot out facts, antagonize the nutcase with the gun. The redhead could hear the agony in Uchiha's voice but Sasuke was still working to bring this bastard down.

"You get all that. I have 15 hostages and 3 guns. A semi-automatic, a rifle, and one more. Pity he couldn't give you the last one but his mouth hurts, huh Sasuke?" Gaara almost flinched but managed to hold it in check. Of course, Tymura knew Sasuke was FBI. He'd claim he was the only one. Hinata had forgotten her bullet-proof vest and had been using a local law-enforcement's vest. But because Sasuke was FBI Tymura would kick the crap out of him just to get to Gaara's head.

"Tymura you beating my agent gets you nothing except for perhaps me angry. If I'm pissed off then you lose. Now, tell me where he's hit."

"Hmm, I don't know. Ask Melen here. You talk to him, he's so annoying." Tymura tossed the phone and a shaking voice spoke.

"H-hi."

"Hello Melen, my name is Gaara Sabaku, I promise I'm gonna get you out of there don't worry. That man hurt an agent of mine though and I need to know if he's okay." Gaara deliberately sounded soothing and passive, this woman needed a rock to cling to, hell all those people did. Gaara would have to be that rock.

"He got h-hit in the back, it went into his side and didn't c-come back out, we had to retrieve the bullet and try to c-cauterize the wound. He'll survive as long as nothing re-opens the w-wound. He's got t-three nurses attending to him." Melen's voice caught and hiccuped in places but she was clear. As long as nothing hit Sasuke's wound he'd be okay.

He'd be okay. Those words were the key to his frame of mind right now. Sasuke was the closest thing he had to a real brother. They'd both already established that losing Sasuke would destroy Gaara. Gaara's opinion on the matter was because he had nothing else to hold on to. His home had been invaded once before and his work followed him everywhere, Sasuke was the only person that his work couldn't touch. Sasuke was excellent at dissociating himself and those around him from a bad situation.

"Melen, is everyone else okay?"

"Y-yes."

Gaara smiled then heard a yelp and then Tymura was talking again.

"Send in some food. Sandwiches, not pizzas and water." Then the line went dead. Gaara got to his feet and leaned out of his office door.

"Some get enough sandwiches and water for 16 people. You," He rounded on the reporter and motioned him forwards," text that kid and tell him I will get him outta there, but in the meantime for him to hide amongst the money. Tell him to disappear."

Rotor nodded vehemently and started texting. Hell if he was going against Gaara after that, plus Gaara had flaunted his power a bit with the unspecific order and 5 agents leaping up to do his bidding. This was the BAU, all of them knew Gaara's style around reporters was that he was in control or the vultures would start circling.

He felt a vibration against his pocket and jerked his cell phone out. A text message.

**To:Gaara  
From: Sasuke  
Message:**

He has my gun.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:**I haven't updated this story in a while so I figured I ought to. I had someone review and say I ought to put a chapter of Sasuke and Hinata's point of view so here it is. Also I really need a little boost in my creative writing juices, so this story gets to serve it's purpose - keeping me going.

* * *

Sometimes his eyes would just close, drift shut and for a moment he'd stop breathing. Every time he did, Hinata stopped breathing too vowing to herself that until he took another breath, she wasn't about to. Then he'd open his eyes - bleary as they were - force a smile to his lips and Hinata would remember that this man was her partner.

And Sasuke Uchiha will never die because some crazy fuck wants him to.

His eyes closed again but he took a deep breath for Hinata's benefit. When he opened his eyes, they were hard and bright with attention. "Hina, love, did the message take? Did Gaara get it?"

"It sent, but I don't know if Gaara got it."

Sasuke groaned quietly and glanced at the security camera aimed at the table he was on. He mouthed 'sir, respond'. Moments later Hina murmured to him that the phone was vibrating. She tugged it out of her hidden pocket - the empty knife sheath she had on her thigh - and checked it as fast as she could before hiding it again. Luckily Sasuke bought a phone that was thin. When he came in with black razor she had simply raised one eyebrow, now she understood why. How you hide a bulky cell-phone from a nut job?

Nut job was the wrong term entirely but it felt _really _good at the time to call him that.

"He says there is a kid in the bank vault. Roughly 9 years old." She threw a deeply concerned glance at the vault and Sasuke nodded. The Uchiha knew that Hina wanted kids and that she always felt horrible when children were involved. So of course, as is typical Uchiha fashion, he felt responsible to get this kid out alive and well.

"Okay, we can't let on about that so don't tell anyone else - sit down, he's coming!" Sasuke hissed and Hinata dropped out of his sight. Tymura walked forward and leaned on the table, on Sasuke's stomach and smiled.

"How you feeling Agent?" Tymura knew exactly how he was feeling, Sasuke thought with malice. He was biting down gasps, Tymura was putting pressure on the bullet wound by pressing the last Uchiha into the table. Sasuke shut his eyes for a moment and the bank robber slapped him. "Don't you dare die on me. If you do I'm going to kill everyone."

Sasuke opened his eyes again and groaned, "What do you want from me?"

"I want you to get on the phone with whoever is out there and start talking. I want to meet the man in charge."

For a second Sasuke didn't know what to say then he pushed Tymura off and sat up. "I'm in charge. I run the team. The guy outside is named Gaara Sabaku, he'll tell you I'm lying to protect me." Sasuke rattled off his own lie. There wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that he was he letting Gaara walk in here and have Tymura taking pot-shots at him. Bad enough that he and Hina were here. But he could protect Hina in here, he could protect Gaara by keeping him outside and safe.

"You are lying." Tymura sing-songed. Sasuke shook his head.

"I'm not lying, it's the tru -" Tymura reached down and pulled a hostage up, he put the gun to her head and Sasuke shut his eyes for a second. "Don't shoot her. She's not doing anything wrong."

"And you are?" Tymura smiled warmly, but Sasuke could plainly see the malice. Sasuke went through the possible outcomes of this. Maintain the lie, protect Gaara - but probably get this woman shot. Expose himself as a liar, get his senses kicked back into him and have the possibility of Gaara being hurt weighing on him. Tymura took the safety off to prompt an answer from Sasuke and Hina whimpered quietly.

"Let the girl go." He sighed. Tymura shoved the girl away and Hina wrapped the now sobbing woman in an embrace and began murmuring quiet reassurances. He reached up and ran a hand through his hair, a nervous tick of his. He couldn't let the other hostages get hurt. "I lied." He waited but frowned when Tymura did nothing. Not a smack, not a curse. Nothing.

He looked around at the other hostages to confirm they weren't suffering in return for his stupidity and when no one started crying he nodded to himself and straightened his back.

"Call him." Tymura pushed a phone towards him and Sasuke nodded, dialing Gaara's cell phone from memory. He put the phone to his ear and almost cracked a smile when Gaara let it ring for a moment. Gaara was not one to just drop anything for a phone call, regardless of who was on the line and now he would do it on purpose. Tymura wanted control and Gaara - the control freak _king _- would not willingly surrender it.

"Sabaku."

"It's me." He heard the silence for a second.

"Nice music there, is it loud enough?" He sounded like he was talking to a third party but Sasuke translated it easily, can Tymura hear them talking? He sighed and replied.

"Not loud enough. Plus you know I hate that punk crap." He heard Gaara's sharp sigh of relief when he got the message. Sasuke was pissed, but Tymura wasn't listening to anything but Sasuke's side of the conversation. "So I got told to call you, but not why..." He trailed off and looked at Tymura. He knew why but maybe he could distract the damnable bank-robber.

Tymura glared and Sasuke nodded. No point in pissing him off. "Sasuke, what the hell?" Gaara was obviously watching the monitor now, watching the security feed that 'nobody' knew how to disconnect. "Stop antagonizing him, that's my job."

"He wants to meet you so it's not your job either. He wants you to come in here and have a face-to-face."

"Ha!" Gaara laughed. "And why the fuck would I do that? It's blatantly stupid to even ask."

Sasuke relayed the message and chuckled softly when Tymura growled. His head snapped to the side with the smack Tymura gave out but he didn't react otherwise. He had to stop jolting whenever Tymura struck him, it was only giving him more and more power.

"Tell him that for every 2 minutes he's in here with me, I'll release a hostage. I would even release everyone except you, the cop," Tymura jerked a thumb at Hinata, then Melen and finally the bank manager's office, "Melen and the bitch back there."

Sasuke felt his suspicious hackles rise. No fucking way was Tymura this calm, this collected when he was talking about giving up potential vic's. He frowned as Tymura waved his hand absently. "Tell him to bring in those sandwiches I asked for personally. Not some SWAT boy behind him." Tymura smiled and the Uchiha covered up a chill.

_This will end badly._Sasuke thought to himself with a less then tasteful mental gesture. He had nearly perfect control of himself physically. He could prevent himself from smacking the most wretched people on the planet but that didn't mean he could really stop himself from flipping them off in his head. His mental control was less then perfect with some of the obscene gestures he made in his head.

"Did you hear all that p--Gaara." He stopped himself from calling Gaara partner, it would only be ammunition in Tymura's already smoking gun.

"Caught it. There's 15 people in there that he knows about, he won't let 4 of you go, so 11 times 2. 22 minutes. Fabulous." Gaara rattled off the figures and finished with a sarcastic murmur. Despite the papers, the two of them didn't like taking chances with their lives, it just often ended up with one or both of them in a dangerous situation.

22 minutes, unarmed against a man over the edge and unable to feel for his victims. Sasuke's hand on the desk behind him turned into a white-knuckle fist. He felt someone's hand on his, but couldn't see who's. They were obviously trying to calm him. For their sake more then his he relaxed his fist. "22 minutes, think the director will sign off on it?"

"No. Which is why I'm coming fast. Give me about an hour and a half, that way I can keep it under the Director's nose."

Gaara was plotting. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Sasuke groaned quietly in annoyance with his partner, because only he would willingly plan to get himself into a potentially suicidal situation without the Director's permission - therefore getting himself into huge trouble with the bureau.

But then again, it was Gaara Sabaku. Nothing can kill Gaara Sabaku.

Right?


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **So I haven't proofed this extremely well, so if any of you catch an error, just tell me what paragraph it's in and I'll be sure to fix it up. To all my readers and reviewers, I'm eternally grateful. You guys have become a source of my many smiles, and I'm inclined to believe you guys are better authors then me. You guys make me laugh so hard with one line of text. 10 words and I'll be crying with laughter. But I'm rambling about how awesome you guys are and I really ought to stop.

Without further ado,

* * *

"Are you out of your goddamn mind?!"

Gaara's head, while planted firmly in the top of his desk forehead pressing against the case file of some other case he was reading over about 2 days prior, throbbed. That pill bottle in his desk drawer was looking evermore tempting to his pain-addled brain. Which severely annoyed him. So his hand snaked into the drawer and he threw the bottle into the garbage without looking. The clink of plastic against metal twanged loudly through his skull, but he dare not flinch. Otherwise the people standing around his desk would think they were getting through to him.

Cause and effect dictate that for every effect there is a cause, something that came about in order to create the final product. He had to agreed with some principles in life, so Murphy's law, Cause and Effect, and Karma were his top three beliefs. So he created his own little cause and effect chart with a black pen on his notepad while no one looked.

**Cause:** Sasuke and Hinata getting taken hostage.  
**Effect: **He had a headache.

**Cause: **Tymura wanted him to walk into a dangerous situation unarmed.  
**Effect: **He had a headache.

**Cause: **There were several people in his office screaming their lungs out at him.  
**Effect:** He had a headache.

His pen fell to the desk. Slowly he lifted his head, ignoring the way his spikes fell down around his face like a curtain, and looked up. Leaning his head into one hand he made a small waving motion with his hand. Most people went dead silent. Only Naruto had the balls to keep yelling at the top of his lungs. Gaara rose slowly to his feet and slammed his hands on the desk. He hated yelling, a lot. So he tried to avoid it when he could, hence you could always tell when he was _really _angry. He went dead silent.

Naruto finally shut up.

"I," He began casually, "have a nasty headache. This is not making it better. Can you all please fuck off." For a second nobody believed those words had actually passed his lips. He would curse at Sasuke in a heartbeat - their quiet banter often consisted of the words 'bitch' and 'asshole' - but he almost never cursed at the rest of the team. They weren't partners. Never would be, but they called each partner a lot. The word would be tossed around the bullpen freely, without real meaning.

Neji, TenTen, Naruto and a couple of SWAT members all nodded silently and left hurriedly. Once they were gone Gaara looked over at his notebook and wrote one last little note.

**Cause: **The BAU team of the FBI.  
**Effect: **A hell of a lot of trouble.

He sighed to himself. A fast glance at the time told him that Sasuke was expecting to see his face at the door to the bank in about 45 minutes. He took a few deep breaths, stripped himself of anything valuable to him. Pictures, wallet, cell, pager, ID. All he took was his badge. His fingers drifted to his gun. He ran his fingertips over the grip before nodding roughly to himself and putting the weapon into his drawer. He felt naked without any of his possessions, but he hadn't the time to dwell on that. If he wanted to throw together this operation in less then the 45 minutes he had, he had to work fast.

The office became a flurry of motion. He made sure that he left extremely detailed instructions on how to hit the bank if he wasn't released, he couldn't risk there being an uninjured FBI agent in there. That gave Tymura absolutely no reason to keep Sasuke alive and Gaara wouldn't stand idle if he was murdered, he'd rip the damn robber apart with his hands if he had no gun. He'd been planning on how to take the bank since the very beginning, luckily this was a simple design and easy to clear quickly with the right SWAT team.

Gaara hesitated in the doorway, then forced himself to walk out the door and into the bullpen - even if his opinion of said bullpen was low at the moment due to his pounding skull. He leaned on the corner of Sasuke's desk and let himself breath for a moment. What remained of his team stared expectantly at him and he nodded. "Tymura offered a deal and I'm taking it-"

"You're crazy." Naruto again. Bugger.

"-because it is our best option. Neji, your instructions are in my office on the desk. I've got ten minutes so I'm going to get a coffee." He covered his nerves smoothly and strolled towards the break area. He needed something to steady his nerves that wasn't going to hinder his ability to react and think.

Coffee, regardless of other people's opinion's did not fall under this category. Coffee was a vital substance and the lifeblood of ten percent of all FBI agents. He took a seat on the counter and scowled when Naruto walked in with a solemn expression. "Partner, please. Reconsider this. It's suicidal."

"Naruto, I'll be fine. And I'm just chatting with the guy, not going anywhere out of sight." He put a hand on Naruto's shoulder and gripped it briefly to try and convey some sort of comfort. He wasn't very good at comforting people - that was always more Naruto's domain - and it would never change. He just didn't seem to have it in him to be a cuddly person.

Hence he ran the unit. Unit chiefs are not cuddly.

"You better not. I'm aiming a sniper at your back, if you start moving away, I'll shoot you in the leg." Naruto deadpanned and Gaara laughed. Only his blond amigo would threaten to shoot his boss. And be dead serious about it. Typical Uzumaki.

Gaara sipped the black liquid in his hands and curled his fingers around the mug, relishing the familiarity of Naruto's presence. Naruto always seemed to emit some kind of warmth and light. It was one of his quirks, one of the ones Gaara found himself enjoying most. He pushed the sleeves of his shirt up and stared at it. He didn't want it getting ruined, it was a birthday present from his sister. One he actually kinda enjoyed. Which was rare.

He sighed before standing up and undoing the shirt, leaving him in his tee shirt underneath. He passed the button-down to Naruto with strict orders to keep it safe. Naruto nodded and snickered. "Without a gun on your belt and when you're not all unit chief-y, you look like a punk."

Gaara just glared. Then groaned and began walking down to the elevator. The team stood waiting. TenTen was spinning a knife between her fingers expertly, she had her buns done up with a silver ribbon today instead of red. How odd. Neji stood behind her, arms wrapped affectionately around her waist. Shika was off to one side, sitting on the floor and half-asleep already. Naruto dashed forwards and smacked him to wake him up before turning back to Gaara with a goofy smile.

"So shall we send you off the pits of hell without a pitchfork?"

.

.

On the rare times that Sasuke was feeling really negative, and when he was like that there was no convincing him otherwise, he was certain that someday his antics would cost Gaara his life. Someday instead of him being shot or stabbed or injured, Gaara would die in his place. Hina told him once in a tizzy that that would never happen - _I'm your partner Sasuke, not him, so he won't be there to save you. _But he would never let Hinata die for him so he knew that that would never happen.

It made his pride burn that he couldn't say the same thing about Gaara Sabaku.

"Hina, if you don't stop torturing yourself I'll be forced to get up and knock you out." He turned his head to face his weakly smiling friend. "So humor me and just relax please? I need you to be calm." And he did. If Gaara seriously walked in that door Sasuke would have to rely on her composure, because he'd be likely to panic. Gaara was prone to reckless choices and moves to protect things. He'd plan and execute the most insane of plots if it had a high chance of successfully defending whatever he needed it to.

This was likely to protect the hostages, and it would succeed so the Uchiha knew he'd go through with it. Even if that did horrify him beyond all rationality. Gaara had to be scared, any rational person would be scared, then again, he frowned, this half-cooked plan of Gaara's didn't exactly scream rational did it. Sasuke's hand went to his other, compulsively turning the ring on his middle finger nervously. The clock positioned nearby told him that in 5 minutes Gaara would be standing at that door.

The phone rang shrilly and the whole lobby jumped in surprise. Tymura appeared in the lobby and put a gun to Hina's temple. Sasuke picked the phone up quickly and made a noise to alert Gaara as to who it was. On the other end of the line Gaara sighed quietly. "I'm sitting beside the door. Naruto thinks I'm crazy - _am_ I crazy? The entire police force outside is watching my every damn move. They're fascinated." Gaara chuckled sarcastically.

"Of course they think you're nuts, I would think you're nuts. Hell you are nuts!" Sasuke managed an almost real sounding laugh. Tymura frowned but didn't say anything, so obviously he wasn't inclined to smack around anybody at the present time. There was silence on the line then Sasuke asked softly, "Are you coming in?"

"Of course partner, I'll see you in a minute." Gaara used the term partner loosely but warmly. A term of affection. Damn was it comforting.

Outside the building, the red headed leader of the BAU team took a deep breath to steady his nerves and stop his heart from beating erratically. Freaking out would do him absolutely no good and he had no time for such childish antics. He took another breath, turning to stare at his team. TenTen tossed him a big supportive thumbs-up and elbowed Shika until he did the same. Neji nodded respectfully then smiled slightly. He nodded to himself and turned to the door.

Gaara's appeared in the door frame and knocked. Tymura smiled with all the charm of Satan and looked to Sasuke. "Go get him." The Uchiha closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath to steady his own nerves - a trick he'd picked up from his boss - before standing. He stole the cane of a hostage and used it to keep his stride even. He pulled the door open and smiled ruefully at the red head.

"You absolute fucking asshole." Sasuke plastered a smile on his face for the added effect.

"Oh I know, but you love it." Gaara groaned out the Oh in the way only he could, aloof and agonized at the same time. By the end of the sentence he was smiling though. The Uchiha could bring a smile like no other, even if he was an ass.

"God only knows why." Sasuke stepped aside and let the redhead walk in before shutting the door and shutting away both of their friends and lives. But he didn't care; his boss, his friend, his one true brother was beside him now and they'd do anything to protect each other. Up to and including committing murder on a low-life bank robber.


End file.
